


strawberries and cigarettes

by moonlitxlarry



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: F/M, High School, High School AU, IT - Freeform, IT AU, M/M, Punk, blind, blind!eddie, motorcycle, punk!richie, reddie au, reddie fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-08-30 02:57:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16756534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlitxlarry/pseuds/moonlitxlarry
Summary: in which eddie is blind, richie is the punk, and eddie can always smell strawberry under the cigarette smoke





	1. one

“Bill, where did you say the keys were?”

“Oh, s-sorry. On the c-coffee table, r-right next t-to the door. Yeah, th-there you go-hey w-wait…” Bill cut himself off, narrowing his eyes at his best friend. 

“Oh my god, kidding!” Eddie laughed, pushing the sunglasses up on his nose. 

“I-I can’t b-believe I f-fucking fall for th-that everytime d-damn t-t-time,” Bill huffed, snatching the keys from Eddie’s outstretched hand. 

“Me neither,” Eddie felt for his backpack on the floor and slung it over his shoulders. “Jeez Bill, you’ve known me for ten years and I’ve been tricking you like that since we were 16.”

Eddie Kaspbrak was blind. He had been since birth, in which he had damaged optics nerves and cataracts. He was light sensitive, which meant he had perception of light and could see faint shadows in front of light. Sometime the light hurt his eyes. There was no cure, but Eddie never knew if he wished there was or not. 

Bill just shook his head, grabbing his own bag, “You r-ready then?”

Eddie nodded, “Yeah, yeah, I think so.”

“Hey, y-you’ll b-be just f-f-fine,” Bill lightly touched Eddie’s shoulder. “W-we have m-most classes t-together s-s-so that’s the g-g-good part.”

Eddie took a deep breath, nodding his head after Bill’s words. Over the summer, Eddie and Bill had been allowed into the high school in order for Eddie to get familiar with the structure of the building. They had gone quite a lot, so Eddie was pretty confident on where he was going to be in the school. However, he knew it would be a problem with an ocean of other high school students in the hallway. 

“Yeah, let’s go then,” Eddie opened the door and stepped outside, waiting for Bill before they took the (37) stairs down to the small parking garage. Eddie couldn’t help but sigh when he got settled in the car and felt it zoom off. 

~

“S-s-see? W-wasn’t so b-buh-bad, was it?” Bill smiled as he and Eddie took their seats in their first class of the day, which was history. 

“Yes, I only have a fracture in my shoulder and my arms are bruised, but it wasn’t bad,” Eddie joked, feeling around for his small recorder in which he would use for every class, since he wasn’t able to write down any notes. He flicked his phone onto silent, although it would still vibrate if he got a call. 

“Big Bill!” A female voice called out, one that Eddie didn’t recognize. 

“Hey B-Bev,” Bill smiled wide at his close friend. 

“Is this Eddie?” She—Bev—asked and Eddie smiled shyly in the direction of the voice. 

“He’s b-b-blind not d-deaf, Beverly, y-you can t-t-talk to him.”

“Oh, shut up,” Beverly scoffed, turning to Eddie. “Eddie then! Bill’s told me a lot about you.” She had thrust her hand out for Eddie to shake but realized he couldn’t see it. She went to pull her hand away but to her surprise Eddie shook it. 

“Good things, I hope,” Eddie chuckled, knowing she was tensing up at the fact that he was shaking her hand. “It’s okay, everyone does it. You were standing in front of the window, I could see the shadow from the light.” He smiled and released his grip. “Sorry, that was probably weird-“

“Oh, no, no, you’re fine,” Bev giggled, sitting down in the seat in front of Bill. “You’re cuter than I imagined.”

Eddie blushed, “Well I hope so, I can only rely on Bill’s judgement of looks.” He wasn’t completely helpless on his own, though. He had a fair idea of which items of clothes are in each drawer and he asked Bill to put them away in color order of the rainbow so he knew. He knew how to style his hair and he wore a pair of black slip-on Vans most of the time. 

“Well, no worries, you’re cute as a button,” Bev said, making Eddie blush deeper. 

“Bev! There you are. Hey Bill!” Another voice. 

“Ben, my love, come here and meet Eddie,” Bev spoke brightly. 

Bill told Eddie about all of his friends at school. Beverly Marsh was Derry High’s ‘Badass Sweetheart’, and her boyfriend was Ben Hanscom, one of the stars on the varsity football team. Eddie really wished Mike was there; he had been friends with him almost as long as Bill. Bill introduced them the summer after they met, but Mike was homeschooled, so he wouldn’t be attending Derry High. Mike had spent a lot of time at Bill and Eddie’s apartment, and he was missing him right about now. 

“Hey, Eddie, I’m Ben.”

Eddie could hear Ben’s smile and he smiled in his direction, “Nice to meet you. Bill’s been talking about you guys for the past week.” 

Eddie was surprised that Bill didn’t hangout with these friends over the summer. They seemed close. Although, sometimes Bill did go out on some days, though he had never said where. Eddie wasn’t hurt; he knew Bill had friends from school who he probably knew for years. He left out but was never directing it at Bill. 

“Well, I hope all good things. Bill can be an asshole sometimes,” Bev laughed, making Eddie laugh along awkwardly. “I’m glad that you’re here Eddie, you’ll make a great addition to the Kickass Team.”

“More like the Losers Club,” The voice came from behind them and it sounded vile to Eddie. 

“Shut it, Bowers, or I’ll rip off your shit-stained shirt and shove it so far up your ass that you’ll be begging for-“

“Alright, babe, enough,” Ben touched Bev’s arm, smiling smally at her. 

Beverly pouted, but turned her attention to Eddie, gently touching his arm, “If that bastard ever even says a word to you, let alone lay a hand on you, you be sure to tell me, got it?”

Eddie was almost frightened by her calm yet stern words, “Yeah, I got it.” He smiled smally at her. 

“Good, Edward, I’m glad.”

He liked to be called just Eddie, but he supposed that it was nice when Beverly called him Edward. 

The first bell of the day rang and Eddie faced forward in his seat. 

“Good morning class, how was your summer?”

~

By the time lunch rolled around, Eddie liked to think he had this high school thing nailed. He was working his recording device  
like a genius and he hadn’t gotten lost all day. 

“I’ve gotta pee,” Eddie announced, setting his bag lunch on the table when Bill told him they had arrived there. 

“D-do you w-want me to c-c-come with you?” Bill asked him, slightly worried that his friend wouldn’t find the way. 

“It’s right out the doors, I’ll be fine Bill,” Eddie turned from the lunch table, beginning to recount the number of steps it took him from the table to the door. He easily remembered where things and places were by counting, and eventually he just fell into a groove. 

He turned left from the cafeteria doors and was feeling along the wall to his left until he came upon a sign, which thankfully had writing in Braille telling him he was at the boy’s bathroom. He did his business and was washing his hands when he heard heavy footsteps clamber in and the faint yet thick smell of-

“Hey, you got a lighter?” A voice, slightly annoyed, light and raspy, spoke in the direction of Eddie, who had just taken paper towels from the dispenser. He could hear the guy—he assumed—fumbling with something, a box, perhaps. 

“Me?” Eddie wondered if he just hadn’t noticed there was a third person in the bathroom. 

“Yeah, they took mine away and I just really fucking need a drag,” So they were alone. 

“Oh, uh, no, I don’t have-“

“You know, it’s not that bright in here, you can lose the sunglasses,” The boy spoke politely (sort of), but he seemed to think Eddie was stupid, maybe. 

Eddie felt for the garbage can and threw the used paper towels away, “I don’t take too well without them. Well, actually, I don’t take too well with them either,” He chuckled to himself at his blind joke, looking toward the ground as it got silent. 

“Oh shit, wait, are- fuck, I’m such an-“

“It’s alright,” Eddie looked to what he assumed was the guy’s direction. “But not The Blind Kid. Eddie.” He felt the wall to his right and walked out of the bathroom. He could feel how close he walked to the other boy on his way out. 

He kinda hoped the boy would find a lighter


	2. two

“S-so, h-how was y-y-your f-first official d-day?” Bill asked Eddie when they met outside of Eddie’s last class of the day. 

“I ran into seven people, so I’d say it was a success,” Eddie chuckled, staying close to his best friend as they made their way to the doors closest to the parking lot. 

“N-n-not bad,” Bill laughed, elbowing his shorter friend. The two stepped outside and Eddie took in the feeling of the warming sun, squinting his eyes at the new sensitivity of sunlight that he could see. He suddenly stopped in his tracks. “W-w-what’s w-wrong, Eddie?”

“I just…” He inhaled and turned to where his senses were leading him. “The cigarette smoke…I ran into someone in the bathroom and they smelled exactly like this.”

“D-did he h-h-hurt you?” Bill sounded concerned and mad for some reason that confused Eddie. 

“No, no,” Eddie shook his head. “He just asked me if I had a lighter. Why would he hurt me? I don’t think it was Henry-“

“I know i-it w-wasn’t Henry,” Bill cut in. “D-d-did the guy h-have a m-mouth o-o-on him?”

“Yeah, I guess so-“

“Th-then it was R-r-richie T-tozier,” Bill told him. “I-if you c-c-come across h-him again, d-d-don’t t-talk to h-him.”

“Why not? He seemed-“

“B-because he’s b-b-bad news, Eddie,” Bill shook his head as he looked in Richie’s direction. “H-him and S-Stan Uris. Th-they’re not H-henry B-bowers, b-b-but s-stay away.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Bev’s voice chimed in, loud and clear, and Eddie was startled by one of her arms wrapping around him. 

“Richie Tozier? I ran into him today and Bill is being-“

“Richie? I know him, but not too personally. I’ve just seen him at parties before, and we’ve talked very briefly but that’s really it,” Bev grinned. “Bill’s just shitting on him because he’s got the hots for his friend.”

“I d-d-do not!” Bill exclaimed, escaping Beverly’s arm to get away from the two and go talk to Ben. 

“Stan’s a cutie, Bill’s got something right,” Eddie could hear the smirk in Beverly’s voice. 

“Is this Richie guy all that bad?” Eddie bit his lip. 

“I mean, he’s got on a leather jacket and black skinny jeans, but Bill’s never even talked to him, so don’t listen to him,” Beverly saw that Richie looked in their direction, at Eddie, and she was still smirking when she turned her and Eddie to face the opposite way. “But, I can't give you any more judgement. I don’t know him too well.”

“Richie is his name?” Eddie adjusted the straps of his backpack on his shoulders. 

“Yeah,” Beverly was walking them, probably closer to Bill and Ben. “He’s pretty tall and his hair-“

“Don’t.” Eddie stopped her. 

“What? Why?”

“I don’t wanna know what he looks like.”

“Why not?” 

Eddie shrugged, “I just don’t.”

Maybe part of it was because he knew he was blind for a reason, or because he didn’t need to know what somebody looked like to know them. 

But he had a feeling about this cigarette-smoking Richie guy that he couldn’t shake. 

~

“Are you guys coming to the party tonight?” Beverly popped the question during lunch on Friday. 

“I d-don’t think s-s-so,” Bill answered timidly. Eddie could feel his leg bouncing under the table. 

“Oh, c’mon, Bill!” Beverly threw her hands in the air. “You’ve never been to one and they’re fun. Plus, you’ve been so uptight during this first week because you’ve been stressing about seeing Stan around-“

“I h-have not b-b-been uptight!” A slight blush spread across Bill’s cheeks as he pouted and crossed his arms. 

Eddie grinned, “You should go, Bill. I could use some time to myself. I know you’ve talked about parties before.”

Bill sighed, “Fine. B-but I’m n-not g-g-gonna drink, and I w-won’t stay l-l-late.”

“Alright, Big Bill, try to remember that when you’re begging to play a third round of beer pong,” Beverly laughed, making Ben chuckle. 

“I mean, let’s hope there’s alcohol,” Ben pointed out. “Tozier’s parents usually only buy him one case of wine coolers.”

Eddie’s mind perked up at the mention of Richie, and that he host parties, “His parents know he has parties?”

“Well, he usually hosts when they go out of town, and they think he just has his little group over,” Bev filled in. “But yeah.”

“Interesting.” Eddie spoke to himself and continued eating. The others started talking about the first home football game next weekend and he really couldn’t care less about at the moment. He thought about Richie for about two seconds before he stopped himself. He talked to him four days ago in a bathroom, for God’s sake, and he hasn’t even seen him since. There was no reason for him to think of Richie Tozier, but here he was. 

When Bill and Eddie got home after school, Eddie really wished that the party had started early. He just wanted to listen to music really loud or watch (listen to) a baseball game, but Bill was rambling and pacing and Eddie was pretty sure he was half naked, in the middle of changing. 

“—a-and I s-s-swear, Eddie, i-if B-bev or B-ben g-get me d-d-drunk, I’m n-never t-talking to th-th-them again,” Bill had just pulled a new shirt over his head and jumped when there was a knock at the door. 

“Shit dude, you gotta calm down,” Eddie laughed, turning his phone over in his hands. 

“Babbling Bill!” Beverly announced, smiling widely at her friend when he opened the door. “You’re loud, my friend.”

“W-whatever,” Bill grumbled. Eddie heard the familiar jingle of Bill’s keys. 

“Are you driving, Bill?” Eddie sat up on the couch. 

“He sure is.” Beverly answered. Eddie could hear the grin in her voice. “Ben and I walked here, it’s not that far from my house. But Richie’s is further and Bill says that he’s gonna be responsible and not drink, but we’ll see about that.”

“F-fuck you,” Bill said flatly.

“You have nice eyes, Eddie,” Beverly told her new friend. The blind boy forgot he had taken the sunglasses off, but he smiled and thanked her anyway. 

Bill turned in Eddie’s direction. “I’ll b-be back l-l-later.”

“Have fun, guys.” As soon as he heard the door close, Eddie had the tv volume up high and his worries were washed away. He loved listening to music, or listening to anything, that is. He listened to audiobooks before he fell asleep, he listened to tv shows, he listened to podcasts and descriptions and anything he could. It was an escape, especially with the books. He aspired to be an author himself; he wrote often and he listened to many different books to gain knowledge of styles of writing. 

“Hey Siri, how do I know if I like boys or girls?” Eddie had his phone resting on his chest while his acoustic playlist was escaping from the speaker in the corner of the living room

“Well, Shorty, based on your internet searches and books you have read, I would say you have a strong interest in the male species. I have also looked into your Pornhub history and your extensive search for male on male-“

“Hey Siri, what time is it?” He couldn’t listen anymore. He got his answer. 

“It is 12:47 a.m.” He probably should be asleep. Although, the grumble coming from his stomach took a different side on the matter. He stopped thinking about what Siri told him before. 

“So much for Bill coming home at a decent time,” He grumbled, rolling off of the couch and onto his feet. He padded into the kitchen and opened the cabinet he knew had the Oreos in it. He felt around for the familiar package, and when he thought he found it, he slid his finger along the Braille label he had made. “Yes,” He fist pumped and grabbed the package to set it on the counter below the cabinet. He was humming along to the song playing through the speakers and licking the icing off of his third Oreo when there was frantic knocking on the door. 

“Fuck, I hope it’s not Mr. Smith,” Eddie groaned about his upstairs neighbor and felt his way around the counter to walk to the door. “Who is it?” He called out, and listened for a response. He only heard the sound of soft moans and wet lips connecting and disconnecting. 

“E-Eddie, it’s m-m-me,” Bill’s voice came from the other side of the door between labored breaths. 

“Interesting. Bill always keeps his keys on him…” Eddie smiled. He was 99% sure it was Bill, but he wanted to make sure. 

“Eddie, f-f-fuck, just open the g-goddamn door,” Bill whined, pounding his fist on it again. 

“Shit, okay,” Eddie unlocked the door and pulled it open. Bill came stumbling in, lips locked with a slightly shorter boy with curly hair, who was sporting black jeans and a white t-shirt. “Jesus, get a room. You sound like you’re already fucking.”

“Trying,” The stranger answered between heavy breaths, thinking Eddie couldn’t hear him. 

Sighted people, Eddie thought to himself, shaking his head. 

“Well, I don’t want to be disturbed so I’ll sleep on the couch tonight,” Eddie nodded, knowing the two weren’t paying attention to him. He heard their loud sounds and sighed in relief when he heard Bill’s door close. He wished that his sense of hearing wasn’t so great and that they didn’t have thin walls. He really didn’t want to listen to that all night. “I’m turning the music up, then.” He was talking to himself now, but he didn’t mind. He got comfortable on the couch again and fell asleep to the strumming of acoustic guitar (and the slamming of Bill’s headboard against the wall).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI I LOVE YOU ALL


	3. three

Eddie woke up, opening his eyes to the blurry sight of sunlight coming from the windows. He turned over in his bed only to fall into the floor, because he wasn’t in his bed. 

“Ow,” He groaned, rubbing his forehead where it hit the hardwood floor. He pushed himself up to a sitting position and wondered if the stranger from last night was still in his apartment. He really hoped the stranger wasn’t a murderer. 

Eddie stumbled into the kitchen and threw a bagel into the toaster. He grabbed a bottled chocolate milk from the fridge, drinking it slowly as he leaned against the counter to wait for the toaster to go off. When he heard footsteps in the hallway and approaching, he stopped drinking to listen more closely. The footsteps didn’t sound so much like Bill’s; they were lighter. 

“I don’t want to believe you’re a murderer, but please don’t be a murderer,” Eddie stood up straight and cautiously kept his ears open. 

“Shit, sorry. I’m not a murderer,” The guy’s voice was gentle and a little raspy. “Sorry, I should’ve given some warning.” 

Eddie could see the guy’s figure in front of the sunlight coming from the window behind him, “It’s alright, as long as you don’t have a knife and are about to stab me,” He chuckled, leaning back to his previous position against the counter. 

“No, trust me, I couldn’t hurt a fly,” The guy chuckled along with him. “I’m Stan, by the way. We have calculus and history-“

“Stan Uris?” 

“Yeah-“

“Damn, Bill must’ve been really drunk…”

“What do you mean?”

“God, Bill’s been talking about you since you came out sophomore year, and never in a million years did I think he’d actually make a move.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah,” Eddie bet that Stan was probably blushing. “Wait...you’re friends with Richie Tozier, right?”

“Yeah, he’s my best friend.”

“Right, right.” His voice faded off into silence. 

“Well, I was just gonna look for the bathroom. Which door?” Stan broke the awkward silence, and broke Eddie from his thoughts. 

“Oh, uh, go down the hallway and it’s the last door on the left,” Eddie cleared his throat. 

“Thanks, Eddie.”

“No..problem,” Eddie furrowed his eyebrows as he heard Stan walk away. He didn’t remember telling Stan his name. “Fuck,” He swore quietly when the toaster went off. Oh well, maybe Bill just mentioned that they lived together. 

Eddie was watching the news and peacefully eating his bagel when there was a knock at the door. He wondered who could possibly want something from him at ten o’clock on a Saturday, so he lazily made his way to the door. He also figured that there were not going to be any murderers at the door at ten, so he didn’t need to Bill to see who it was. 

“Hi, is Stan-oh,” As soon as Eddie opened the door, he heard the familiar, rambling voice. The cigarette smoke was faint, but he could smell something else under it. “Uh, hey. Eddie, right?”

“Richie, hi,” Eddie gave a shy smile. He hoped it wasn’t weird that he knew Richie’s name without him telling him. “You don’t have to stand out there, you know.”

“Oh, okay,” He stepped inside and Eddie closed the door and faced his shadow in front of the light. “Sorry for the early wake-up call, I tracked Stan’s phone to the building and yours was the first apartment. I haven’t seen him since, like, midnight and he wasn’t sleeping at my house so I thought the fucker was dead.”

“No, not dead,” Eddie mentally rolled his eyes. Bill thinks this guy is intimidating? “He’s here. I’ll go get him. Just, don’t break or steal anything.” 

“The only thing I’ll be stealing is your heart,” Richie spoke under his breath, and Eddie shook his head as he walked to Bill’s door. He knocked once and opened the door. 

“Is it okay to look?” Eddie asked but got no response from either boy. “Just kidding, I can’t see anyway. Stan, your friend Richie is here,” He loved to make cheesy blind jokes. Bill hated them. He heard the familiar scoff. 

“Damn okay. I guess I should go then. I’ll be right out,” Stan talked out loud, although Eddie didn’t know if Bill was awake or not. He turned and walked back to the open concept of the living room and kitchen. 

“He said he’ll be right out,” Eddie spoke, though he didn’t know where Richie was standing now. 

“I like your place, Eds.” Richie spoke, his voice coming from close to the door. 

Eddie walked to the kitchen and threw away his chocolate milk bottle. He turned to the direction of Richie and scrunched up his nose. 

“You don’t think it’s nice?” Richie questioned. 

“No, I didn’t like it when you called me that.”

“What, Eds? Well, I think it’s a cute nickname. Fits perfectly with your cute face.”

“You’re bad at flirting.”

“Cute, cute, cute!”

Eddie rolled his eyes, moving to the couch when he heard two sets of footsteps emerge from the hallway.

“Rich, stop harassing the guy.” Stan’s voice rang out. 

“It’s not harassing if he enjoys it. Right, Eds?” 

Eddie could hear the smirk in his voice, “I never said that I enjoyed it.” He sat against the arm of the couch. “And don’t call me that.”

“Alright, time for us to go,” Stan spoke. Eddie heard him talk quietly to Bill, but didn’t care to pay an attention to them. He clicked the TV on, and the news was rolling. “Bye, Eddie, sorry for scaring you earlier” Stan’s voice rang out again over the sound of the TV. 

“Don’t stress about it,” Eddie responded, waving at him. “I’ll see you in class on Monday.”

“Sure thing,” Eddie heard Stan kiss Bill. “Bye, Bill.”

“Bye.” Bill whispered, no stutter presenting itself. 

“Bye, Eds. Maybe I’ll see you in the bathroom again, but in different terms.” Richie spoke now. 

“Beep beep, asshole,” Stan scolded his friend. 

“Don’t call me that. It’s Eddie,” The blind boy responded, paying attention no more to the Trashmouth. Once he heard the clicking of the front door open and close, he sat up. “Alright, Bill, we need to talk about this.” There was no response and Eddie could hear the sound of Bill typing on his phone. “Jesus Christ, he just left. Bill!”

“Hmm?”

“Come here. Give me your phone.”

“What?”

“I swear to God, Bill, I’ll uppercut you and I don’t even know what an uppercut looks like.”

“F-fine.”

Eddie held out his hands, waiting for Bill to place it within his grasp. When he had a hold on it, he turned the ringer off and placed it under his ass. 

“H-hey! Eddie, that’s n-not f-f-funny!”

“Well you wanna know what is funny? The face that you slept with your longtime high school crush the first weekend of senior year. I thought you weren’t going to drink. Were you drunk?”

“I-I mean, I w-wasn’t w-w-wasted, b-but I h-had a few c-cups,” Bill turned down the volume on the TV. “I d-definitely r-r-remember what h-happened.”

“Okay, Jesus, TMI, Bill,” Eddie shook his head in disgust. He didn’t want to replay the noises in his head from last night. 

“W-what about y-you, f-f-flirting w-with R-richie T-tozier?”

“We were not-“

“Uh, you t-t-totally were!”

“It’s called being socially awkward, Bill! You’re so insensitive! I’m blind!” He was laughing inside of his head. 

“Sh-shut the hell u-up and g-g-give me m-my ph-phone”

“Fine, but I want you to know that I haven’t showered since Thursday.”

“F-fuck you,” Bill took his phone from Eddie’s hands and stormed to his room.

“I love you too, Blabbering Bill.” Eddie smirked, lying back down on the couch. He really did enjoy living with Bill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI SORRY I HAVENT POSTED IN A WHILE. I LOVE ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS, I ENCOURAGE THEM :))))


	4. four

“C’mon, pick up,” Eddie anxiously ran a hand through his hair while the other was holding his cell phone up to his ear. “God dammit, Bill.”

The blind boy had stayed an hour or so after school at the library to take a math test that he wasn’t able to take during class that day. Bill said he would be able to pick Eddie up even though he would be at Stan’s. 

“Fuck,” Eddie whispered, about to call Bill for the fifth time.

“Eddie?” The voice that sounded wasn’t Bill’s, but another semi-familiar one. Eddie froze, trying to register who the voice belonged to; however, he didn’t have to think very long once the familiar smell of the almost-toxicating cigarette smoke flooded his senses. “Hey, it’s me, Richie.”

“Hi,” Eddie took the phone away from his ear as the smell became stronger. He could hear Richie’s heavy footsteps coming from his left. 

“What’re you doin’ out here?” Richie’s footsteps stopped. 

“Oh, uh, I was taking a test after school and Bill was supposed to pick me up but he’s at Stan’s,” Eddie explained. “And he won’t answer his phone, so.”

“Yeah, Stan hasn’t answered my texts in a while,” Richie replied. Eddie nodded in response, which led into a few moments of a slightly uncomfortable silence. 

Eddie was about to open his phone to call Bill again when Richie broke the silence, “Do you want a ride?”

“Hmm?” Eddie froze. He did hear what Richie said, but he was just trying to process it. 

“I can drive you home. It doesn’t seem like Bill’s gonna answer anytime soon if he’s with Stan.”

“Oh, right, umm…” Eddie was good with trust, he always listened to his gut. What was his gut telling him now? That there was a nice (but shady?) boy who wanted to help him out? That even though he didn’t know if he was gay, he was getting tingly feelings? “Yeah, I guess you can give me a ride. Thank you.”

“No problem, Eds,” Richie smiled. “It’s only a couple parking spaces down.”

“Don’t call me Eds,” Eddie groaned quietly, outlying Richie’s figure in the sunlight and slowly following it. 

“Here we are,” Richie spoke. Eddie heard him fumbling around with something. “Here, put this on.” 

Eddie felt for whatever Richie was holding out to him, “What is it?”

“A helmet,” Richie responded. He clipped his own on. “Shit, I should’ve told you that I, uh, drive a motorcycle.”

“Yeah, you probably should’ve,” Eddie mumbled. “I don’t know, Richie. Maybe I’ll just walk home.”

“Over my dead body, your apartment is, like, a 2 hour walk. C’mon, Eddie, I promise that it’s safe.”

Eddie bit his lip, thinking the situation over in his head. His brain was flashing warning signs at him, screams of ‘Don’t do it, Eddie! He’ll kill you!’ He tried focusing on what his gut was telling him. ‘You only live once, Eddie. Maybe this will will reveal if you really are gay.’ ‘Shut the fuck up, consciousness.’

“You promise it’s safe?”

“100% promise, Eds, cross my heart! I always wear a helmet and I always keep an extra one too. You’re in good hands.”

“Okay, I trust you,” Eddie moved to put the helmet on his head. “Is it facing the right way?”

“Yeah, it looks great,” Richie was smiling, Eddie could hear it. “Damn, you even look cute in a doofy motorcycle helmet.”

“It’s doofy?”

“Not on you, Eds.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, “Don't call-“

“You Eds, yeah yeah yeah,” Richie strung along. “Ready?”

“Yeah, I think so,” The shorter boy adjusted his backpack straps on his shoulders. “Will you help me get on first, please?”

“Of course,” Richie responded. “Here, put your hand on the seat, so you know where it is. And grab onto my arm so you can balance. Now step over.”

Eddie did as Richie told him, and he successfully sat himself onto the motorcycle. He still had a grasp on Richie’s arm. 

“You gotta let go of me if you wanna go home, Eds,” Richie chuckled. 

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Eddie could feel his face burn up as he released Richie’s arm and grabbed onto the side of the seat for support. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold on like that once they were driving, though. ‘Are you really going to put your arms around him??’

Richie climbed onto his bike and cleared his throat, “You can, uh, put your arms around me, here.” He reached for Eddie’s hands, and the blind boy let him take them. Richie guided Eddie’s hand to wrap around his middle and stop at his stomach. Nobody else had to know that Richie lingered his hands on Eddie’s for just a little longer than needed. He removed his hands and cleared his throat again, “Ready?”

“Yeah,” Eddie replied quietly, trying to adjust to the feeling of Richie’s body wrapped in his arms. ‘Woah. Holy shit, Eddie.’ 

“Alrighty,” Richie spoke before he revved the engine on the bike and got it started. 

Eddie had been explained to about what a motorcycle looked like and how it works, but nothing was ever how it was described in words. He was anxious about it, and it was a little scary once they started driving. However, Eddie felt the wind blowing on his face and it felt...freeing. He felt like he should say something to Richie, maybe spark up conversation. But he didn’t. Because he was doing something that he’s never done before; that his mom would kill him for if she found out; that Bill would probably kill him for once he told him. God, Eddie was surprised that he was even doing this. A motorcycle? High school really does change people. 

About two minutes into the ride, Eddie had found himself struggling to be comfortable in the position he was in (and not just because his pants were a little too tight now). When they were stopped at a redlight, Eddie very cautiously leaned forward and rested his body and cheek against Richie’s back. He felt the biker boy tense up and was about to pull away, but then Richie relaxed, as well as himself. It felt like Richie was wearing a sweater; Eddie wondered what color it was. They started driving again and Eddie inhaled deeply, to smell the chilly summer air. With that he got the smell of summer, the seemingly intoxicating scent of Richie’s cigarette smoke…

...and the smell of strawberries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI THIS IS SHORT BUT ITS CUTE AND ITS SOMETHIN :)))

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!!! i’m kinda new to this so that’s cool but just give me time lol. but this is a reddie story i’ve been working on and i have cool things planned in the future so stay tuned!!! thank you to everybody who even glances at this it’s crazy :)


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